Russell Ruderman

It’s breaking news that the Kauai anti-GMO law has been invalidated by Judge Kurren today. The law is pre-empted by the state law and cannot be enforced at the county level. Joan Conrow and Richard Ha both did great blogs today on the news.

As I followed some of the news links posted on the various Facebook pages from Hawaii News Now, Civil Beat, KITV4, and KHON2, the commentaries are so disheartening once again. I don’t consider this ruling a win in any case. The damage has been done towards Hawaii agriculture, farmers, scientists, and our communities. Our communities are not healed by this ruling that was started with a huge disinformation campaign by mainland based activists. We are still divided and people are still not well informed about the issues revolving around agriculture here.

There has been so much fear mongering and misinformation that the public has been made to be so afraid of things they just don’t understand. Bringing up they issue of biotechnology or even mentioning genetics or basic science turns people off as they have been indoctrinated to the belief that it’s “propaganda.” How can we move forward when the largest and loudest voices are the least informed and still trying to dictate law? These are the same people who don’t understand how laws are made with to begin with or how the legal system works and now are asking for the judge to be impeached or even harmed?!

Screenshot from the Babes Against Biotech Facebook page. Note the disturbing commentary below.

These activists aren’t about working together towards a common goal unfortunately. Just last week at a farmer’s rally on the Big Island, a long time GMO Free activist named Courtney Larson, was arrested and is being charged for disorderly conduct and other various charges. When farmers are trying to figure out how to move forward after this devastation, and are at their most vulnerable state, the activists show their true colors and it isn’t pretty or full of aloha. Is that what we need in Hawaii at a time when we have so many other issues to deal with and work through?

The activists politicians are also another group of people who are feeding this unaloha spirit in our islands. From the likes of Russell Ruderman and his fear mongering GMO articles, to Mike Gabbard sending me links to the debunked Seralini study, to Kaniela Ing and his associations with “home rule” and the SHAKA Movement, to Gary Hooser and his alliances with environmental activists, our leadership is failing us as a state. I’ve always been taught as a leader to check out your sources and do your research about the issue to base your decisions up and that you must use facts and evidence to move forward, not emotions or trends of the moment. The leaders’ jobs are to keep the community together and cohesive so that it can operate properly. When leaders like these choose to side with the loudest of the bunch but refuse to use facts or come to the table to discuss issues, it does no one any favors. They should also be doing the work of educating others with good information so fear doesn’t dominate the conversations. It’s pretty clear poor leadership has done a lot of damage in these recent years.

Judge Kurren has made his ruling and that has set the law today. Do we choose to accept this decision or continue fighting and completely wasting our time and energy on this issue that further divides the communities? Or do we move on and work on the actual problems that we face like our high poverty rate, education, traffic, the increasing elderly population, homelessness, food security, and so on? I hope that we move forward and actually set out to do something meaningful for the people in our communities and use our resources wisely to make it happen. That’s my hope and expectation!

Thanks to the nastiness and bullying tactics of the Babes Against Biotech, some of our politicians have decided that they will comply with the demands of Naomi Carmona. She apparently is a highly regarded expert in biotechnology and should be heeded as she knows where the future of Hawaii should lie. Let’s talk a bit more about the claims she makes as fact or truth.

I’m voting for candidates who actually take money from the seed companies because it kicks the ignorance that’s infecting and contaminating our state right in the face. If a politician has a guts to stand up and say, “I know where the future is and I’m not listening to a hypocritical chic in a bikini and other nasty activists,” that’s the politician I want in office. The trendy hobby activism is really the dumbing down of Hawaii and making people so oblivious as to how biotech has moved our world forward and how it can help others around us. Logic, rational thought, research, and evidence must be our guide for the future, not the trend of the moment.

GMO Free People Don’t Care if Their Misinformation can Harm

Let’s face it, the people who proudly proclaim themselves as GMO free and A’ole GMO don’t care whether or not the information they state is true or false. The sad part about their massive misinformation campaign is that it’s deadly. Just the other day, GMO Free USA was tweeting and Facebook posting this meme associating insulin with diabetes. Um, no, that isn’t the case. Dr. Kevin Folta, does a great job and putting the “boneheads” in their place for spreading this kind of misinformation. Asking a diabetic to be afraid of one’s insulin is a death sentence with this kind of fear mongering.

The World Doesn’t Want GMOs?

Naomi, as well as other anti-GMO activists, will all claim that the rest of the world doesn’t want this technology. She, of course has no formal education other than being an activist, but somehow knows this. I walked around the BIO International Convention the last several days and was among some 20K people and I’m really not too sure that she’s telling the truth.

Little did these misguided women know that inside the exhibition hall was 65 countries featuring their GMO technology behind them. They included the very autocratic countries that they adore for their “GMO bans,” like Russia, Hungary, and China.

It’s pretty clear to me that the world does want GMOs based on what I saw here. Naomi and her crew will keep touting that there are “64 countries that ban GMOs” over and over but I’m starting to think that they aren’t being fully truthful and didn’t do their due diligence. That’s not what the 20K attendees to the BIO International Conference saw there last week.

Politicians Fueling Farm Wars with Ideology

Just when I thought the politicians couldn’t get any worse with their fear mongering campaigns, Tulsi Gabbard takes the cake today with her emailer. (She of course doesn’t let her constituents know that she has taken some $10K from Down to Earth in her campaign coffers either.)

Well, I did invite her to the farm over a year ago and she never responded. I really am irked with her mention of “GMO-free papayas.” Yes, you are dividing the farmers and knocking the ones devastated by the disease with your pitching of this kind of message. It makes me angry that uninformed politicians are taking these kinds of sides and ignoring where the world is heading. Her Down to Earth and Whole Food Markets supply a mere 1% of the Hawaii’s markets and she’s fear mongering to the general public to be afraid of food that has been tested beyond belief is unbelievable to me. What’s she saying about the 99% who buy their food at Times, Foodland, and Sack and Save? Should I feel bad for buying food that is affordable?

If she sincerely wants that “local and sustainable food supply,” I think she should ask the very people who are the ones that are “local and sustaining” the food market. The papaya farmers from my dad to others are definitely sustainable at some 40 years or more and going on 3 generations and she’s sending a snub their way. Sorry, Tulsi, this has gone on too far with your actions and words being so insincere. If you sincerely want more local food and it be sustainable, then you’d better include all the people involved right now instead of picking and choosing. You’re part of the problem if you’re not going to look at the whole picture and include all the parts. That’s not what good leaders do if they are going to solve problems.

But then again, the truth is coming out about politicians like her and others who align with activists. Russell Ruderman, a Big Island state senator finally comes clean about the truth.

The truth is out by our anti-GMO politicians. They aren’t looking out for the local people but for their own self interests in mainland activism and food elitism. It’s not about making an affordable Hawaii for all but making it harder, and harder for all the local people already having a hard time.

Some wanna be politicians/activists aren’t always very scrupulous and love to play coy too. You can fool many but you can’t fool them all.

Fern Rosenthiel, of Ohana O Kauai, makes her clueless but honest opinion of the ag workers.

Robert Harris, Sierra Club Executive Director, who posted this question when I placed a link on Kent Fonomoana’s page about the environmental groups. He’s someone who doesn’t know that Earthjustice is tied to the Sierra Club? Really? Oh, that’s why he deleted it!

Terez Amato, State Senate Candidate running on Maui against the incumbent, Roz Baker. I almost mistook Tulsi’s email for Terez’s!

The unbelievable things people say is documented all over the internet and is so easy to find because it’s everywhere. Do we as local people want the food fight to continue or are we really going to sit down and actually DO SOMETHING? If we really want to reach our goal of more local food and farms, then we’d either work together or get out of the way! A vote for these people shows that they want to continue the onslaught against ag. It’s your choice this election season.

A vote for an anti-GMO candidate is a vote for more of this to happen in our communities. Arthur Brun is a Syngenta employee and an active community contributor who recently found this on his campaign sign. Clearly, the no aloha crew has made it’s mark again.

Take that Corporate Evil Money Folks and Have NO SHAME!

Honestly, if I knew that a politician was avoiding taking Monsanto or any other corporation’s money to run their campaign, I’d be proud of them. They are telling people like the Babes Against Biotech, Hawaii SEED, the Center for Food Safety, Earthjustice, and the Sierra Club that they will not be bullied by misinformation and the non-profit activism money from the mainland. A politician, who has the bravery to stand up against these groups, deserves the local person’s respect and shows that he or she has done due diligence to researching what the truth really is.

Where was Hawaii SEED and the Babes Against Biotech when papaya farmers across our state had their farms destroyed by disease? What contribution did these activists offer to help solve this very real problem? They were not around at all and when the problem was finally solved, then they started to attack the farmers’ successes head on. Many of the members of Hawaii SEED did not laud the saving of these crops but instead started the onslaught of misinformation campaigns with well known groups like the Center for Food Safety.

The best image yet that incorporates fear and demonizes the papaya farmers has to be the one found on their website. It’s sure to bring on some shivers down your spine when you see a papaya tree and hazmat suits. Clearly, fear mongering at it’s best! These actions show that these groups are NOT about helping farmers but attacking them.

Fear mongering at it’s best comes from non-profit groups like Hawaii SEED

So who was there to help save this crop from total destruction? It was the corporations that helped to fund the research that ultimately saved Hawaii papayas. They donated the resources for this effort to help save that industry so that farmers like these could continue their farms to bring you those local, sustainable foods like papayas.

So Mr. and Ms. Politician, don’t be ashamed of who you get your campaign funding from. It sends us all a message that you have the guts and integrity to stand up for what is right for Hawaii and that you’ve done your homework. I admire people who can stand up for the truth against a loud, obnoxious and misinformed crowd that are only willing to take away things and never have anything to offer in return. They say really ugly things and I know, I have had it directed my way, but that is only a reflection on themselves, not you! You are the leaders that Hawaii needs to heal and nurture our communities and move us towards being educated and informed rather than fear mongered and kept in the dark. Be that leader and do what’s right even though it isn’t popular!

Every time you feel afraid of the activists bullying, you tell these farmers that they can’t farm and need to keep defending their work and have them leaving their fields. Is that how we are going to meet our goals towards more local food? Send us a more consistent message and take a stand for what is right. Stop allowing activism to control the conversations and take that stand. The farmers need you, the politicians, to do this. They have lost plenty of time, money, and effort continuing to defend their work. Let them fulfill their passions. Let them farm!

I was browsing through some environmental groups here in Hawaii and noticed how there is an irony about them. There’s one group that claims to want to “empowers people to build more environmentally sustainable, compassionate, and resilient communities rooted in personal commitments to change.” They support alternative energy, reducing waste, locally grown food, composting, and so on.

Their stance on energy is interesting because it focuses on a using high tech advances to harness the energy. They have people committing on wanting to use LED bulbs, solar, wind, and electric cars. All of these things require advanced technology to convert these renewable sources of energy. Much of the research done to create this was done by corporations too! The future for energy looks to high technology to minimize our impact on the earth which is definitely a good thing.

Then a few days ago, I saw their Facebook page with this posted that made my jaw drop…

Original post on Kanu Hawaii’s Facebook page a few days ago.

So when I saw Kanu posting this message with the activist group, The Center for Food Safety Action Fund, I was extremely disappointed and upset. This is a Washington, D.C. based group that is run by organic food activists and not about food sustainability or security. They operate by bringing lawsuits to court to block agricultural technology and keep it from getting to farmers to use. They aren’t here to HELP Hawaii agriculture or the environment as they claim. No one ever researches these groups out either to learn who and what they really do.

The Center for Food Safety wants no technological advances allowed to agriculture. They use a lot a fear and misinformation about the technology to promote their message also which is all emotion based. This group also fights aquaculture and nanotechnology as listed on their website. They also have a long history of lawsuits against companies and the government also. Their MO is to sue and then win or lose, collect back court costs and fees from the Equal Access to Justice Act, through loopholes that they have found. None of this money goes towards helping the farmers or the environment for that matter. Hence, the likely reason why they went to Federal court to be added as defendants on the Ordinance 960 lawsuit.

The way this group operates is very much like the Sierra Club’s legal arm, Earthjustice, where they claim to help the environment through lawsuits. Here’s a case where they were paid $2.6 million from the EAJA from a lawsuit that they won. These groups have figured out how to funnel monies out of the Federal government and get paid exorbitant amounts. Note that the lead attorney, Andrew Kimbrell, was paid $650 per hour for his work on this case and other attorneys got paid $250 to $450 an hour too!

Just an example of how CFS operates and the take advantage of the EAJA.

Andrew Kimbrell, who Jessica Wooley fondly refers to as Andy, is also very much against technology, but calls herself a progressive. Here’s his rambling thoughts on this “cold evil,” as he calls it. He also is against anything corporate as he considers it evil. Here’s some telling quotes made in that lecture.

I have been in many corporate law firms and boardrooms and have yet to see any “high fives” or hear shouts of satisfaction at the deaths, injuries, or crimes against nature these organizations often perpetrate.

Whether it’s a hammer or a nuclear bomb or a piano or genetic engineering, technology always represents power, an extension of human power. And the question always arises, Is that power appropriate. Simply put, when power is inappropriate, evil results.

The tragic result of this failure is that cold evil flourishes, causing ever greater ecocide and genocide even as it remains unnamed and unaddressed.

There is absolutely no doubt that we cannot be a democratic nation, we cannot be a democratic people, and we cannot free ourselves from the cold evil of technological control that now has spread even to our genetic core until we stop allowing technology to control human choices and instead see to it that our human choices control technology.

To face cold evil we must become creators, not consumers. We must break out of our techno-cocoons and recognize that the actions we take in deciding which products to buy or which services to use or render will create a better future for ourselves and the earth. We must take responsibility for the consequences of how we fulfill our basic human needs. Further, we must become true citizens, asserting our sovereignty over corporations and not allowing ourselves to be mere consumers of what they provide us.

He even wants to charge Galileo for a crime for creating this “cult of objectivity.” This really is a key indicator that this movement really is the anti-science.

One of the epochal moments in the history of Western science occurred on June 22, 1633, when Galileo, under extreme pressure from Church inquisitors, “abjured” his heresy that the earth revolves around the sun. Since that time Galileo has remained an ultimate symbol of modern enlightenment martyred by the forces of superstition and prejudice. Yet if we consider the nature of the cold evil so prevalent today, we can bring charges against Galileo anew. For his real crime was not his understanding of the nature of the heavens but rather his seminal role in creating what could be called “the cult of objectivity”—resulting in a science and science community that have largely been purged of subjectivity and qualitative human thought.

Kimbrell doesn’t stop there with his corporate hate but continues his tirade against any technology including computers in schools.

I’ll use the question to say that computers in the early grades are extremely dangerous. I cannot tell you how strongly I feel about this. It is the most destructive trend I can imagine. Television is already omnipresent for these children. Now computers in school lure their young minds away from wonder and into calculation, and in so doing eliminate arts, sports, and social interaction. Computer programs in school are a frightening incarnation in the early grades of the cold-evil ideologies. To be sure, the ideologies of efficiency, competition, and reductionist science have existed since the days of Horace Mann and John Dewey, but to actually take these young minds and enclose them in the technological milieu, shutting out wonder and substituting computer programs, is tragic.

I find it great that Kanu Hawaii and its funder, Ulupono Initiatives are about a cleaner world while promoting technology to achieve that. There are lots of high technology advances being used to improve the environment from solar technology to wind technology. The founder of Ulupono, Pierre Omidyar, also profited from his own corporation, Ebay to help fund these investments in Hawaii. To have some of Kanu’s former members like Kasha Ho join the Center for Food Safety is quite an odd match in that they perpetuate the complete opposite message.

Ulupono is also interesting in that they tout high tech for energy sources but then support and fund old ways of farming like Mao Organic. I find this message pretty contradictory at many levels. Many of the same activists all love their organic farms and are the same ones fueling animosity and controversy towards Ulupono’s other project, the Kauai Dairy. Many activists think that because Mao Organics is a successful organic farm that anyone can do it, which is farm from the truth. How many farmers get to have the backing of a billionaire to run their business? Hmm…

What bothers me even more is that on Kanu’s FB page they also tout things like the Seed Exchange event. The world of agriculture has evolved and changed with technology just the same as the energy sector and yet they still cling to the old ways. Where’s any discovery and innovation presented on how biotechnology is making crops more sustainable and environmentally friendly? We no longer have to use old, more dangerous pesticides to grow food which is a great thing to have. None of these aspects on how agriculture is being more “green” is ever presented and it’s sad because that is what’s where ag has advanced in leaps and bounds, and yet it is never acknowledged and an opposite message is presented.

I would like to see Kanu and Ulupono stay as far away as possible from anti-progress groups like the Center for Food Safety at all costs. This group will only block the progress needed to achieve their goals of a cleaner, more sustainable Hawaii. They don’t give anything to making Hawaii better, but take away tools that could. A better Hawaii can only come from education and research, not pure activism based in fear and misinformation. And who’s to say if this group will start to block renewable energy options in the future that could help everyone with their anti-technology bent?

Visit the Center for Food Safety webpage and you’ll be treated to fear mongering! It works and they know it.

Why should an activist group have a say in who gets access to technology? They provide no evidence or options for the people of Hawaii and are out to block progress and line their own pockets. They are not about working together with different sectors or collaborating with anyone who disagrees with their stance. That’s now how we move forward in Hawaii! We all have to work together to reach goals or remain stuck in the ideological muck. The evidence must move us forward for the future.

The more I read about the Center for Food Safety, the more I feel like being despise this movement. This is such a hypocrisy of the environmental movement that makes me lose faith in it. They hate greed but are greedy themselves. They hate corporations but support corporations that agree with them. These groups take away taxpayer funds that really should be used for making our planet better and not for lining their own pockets. They block a technology that could help farmers in developing countries have less reliance on highly toxic pesticides and provide no alternative.

Technology for all sectors are good and why are we getting picky about who gets access to it? It’s a tool that we have to use and let it do its work. Isn’t the goal to make our world better and cleaner?!

Based on the stance of this group, they have a lot to go after here in Hawaii. They can help block or make aquaculture projects more difficult like the Kona deep sea fish farm, the abalone farm, or even the shrimp farm on Kauai. They must want more depletion of wild fish populations and less research on how to protect it. They might even try to ban people from fishing like their linked group Earthjustice has succeeded doing in California. They might even block other companies from coming to our islands for high tech research in nanotechnology. Who knows what these groups will take on next but I’m not waiting to not speak up.

No where on their website is there any humanitarian efforts made other than to “protect people and environment,” with no real evidence that they are actually doing such thing. They want to block any corporation who may be heading such efforts also but offer nothing in return. These groups are takers, plain and simple.

Everyone should be worried when an anti-progress, regressive activist group takes stake here. From the scientists and researchers at UH working on solving plant diseases, the UH cancer center who might be researching nanotechnology, to the shrimp farms on Kauai, this should worry all of us. This group might even block genetic engineering that could solve so many human illnesses because they are against this technology completely. The new dairy should be worried too because they might block a genetically altered grass or feed that can be fed to their cows. Ranchers should be worried that this might affect their ability to feed their herds with GE feed or other technology available to them. Every consumer and Department of Ag inspector should be worried because they are out to block irradiation and other technology from bringing in pests to our islands that could decimate our food security. They are also seeking out to label GMO foods and don’t care if the exorbitant costs will be spread to our people already struggling with high costs of food, all over their deceitful “right to know.” These activists are a real threat to everyone with what they propose for our islands.

It is even more disturbing to see legislators participating in talks with the Center for Food Safety. Some of those include Jessica Wooley, Lauren Matsumoto Cheape, Chris Lee, Russell Ruderman, Gary Hooser, Elle Cochran, and others who align with them. They want extremist groups to run the roost here in Hawaii?! It’s like letting Greenpeace have decisions over what our farmers can farm and I abhor that completely. I can’t understand why these leaders have chosen such a route for Hawaii despite calling themselves progressives!

I want to save our land like others but there are better ways of doing it other than activism. I applaud groups like the Nature Conservancy in Hawaii ,who are actually out there cleaning our waters of invasive species, or ridding the forests of miconia or controlling the feral pigs out from our precious rain forests to protect the native plants from extinction. They aren’t paying for protests or websites that make people feel like their being poisoned or use fear mongering to get their message across. You will never see a fear mongering picture out there either because that’s not their goal. They work with the different sectors of private and public agencies to take care of Hawaii, which is a great thing. They actually DO something for Hawaii and those are the kind of environmentalists that GIVE to our a’ina and exactly what we need!

When I did point out that I had a problem with Kanu posting the Center for Food Safety on their page, I’m glad that the director edited the post that they do not support or endorse them. I really do hope that it stays that way for the future. That’s another step in the right direction for that sustainable and compassionate Hawaii that we are all seeking.

Breaking News on GMOs: It made front page news today of the Star Advertiser that people want to have their genetically modified labeled. Well, a majority of some 642 people apparently do. So how are legislators attempting to satisfy what 487 people want?

They are going to do GE food labeling at the STATE level by the Department of Health! (Of course the anti-GMO crowd will say that 62 countries label their GMOs! So we should too! When did Hawaii become a country?!)

Of course we can’t quite figure out why this law is needed in the first place, other than people like Nomi Carmona, who believes that lilikois grow on trees and that there are GMO melons in Kunia. She apparently has an inherent “right to know.” She and others can’t figure out that foods without the organic label isn’t GMO and it’s a travesty. The others clamoring for this right to know also think that snowballs don’t melt because of chemtrails, since they apparently skipped out on science class to learn about something called sublimation.

And if you read SB2521 carefully, it is all spelled out there on how they are going to enforce such a law. No one has yet to die of GMOs, but when and if it happens, our politicians will be there to save us from it with this label. Just in case it doesn’t kills us, they were trying to make raw milk more available to help address that issue.

If one does not comply with this law after January 1, 2015, the penalties are as follows:

Yes, if that locally grown biotech food and other products aren’t labeled, you can get fined, jailed, and sued. Since the anti-GMO people can’t get it banned, the alternative is to jail the farmers and others who feed us.

Earthjustice and Center for Food Safety is also ready to work for some dough to sue food producers and farmers if this benign food is not labeled. These two groups apparently had too many GMOs shoved down their throats laced with swigs of RoundUp unwittingly from being on Kauai several months ago, which caused them to develop a severe case of dementia as a result. That’s why they never went back to defend the county as promised. But hey, they had their colons cleansed back on the mainland with their organic food and are ready to jump back into the muck of Hawaii politics for the rubbah slippah folks!

Hawaii politicians who put their name to this kind of bill should be highly commended for their skillfulness to craft laws that really look towards the future. The way to achieving affordable, local, and sustainable food supply is really simple. Jail and fine those farmers for growing food for us. That’s how our leaders do their best to support agriculture here.

It’s a really proud day in Hawaii when the politicians show their thanks to the farmers! Welcome to your cold cell Mr. Farmer!

**If you agree with this way of achieving their goal, please thank them by sending this quick email . The farmers really look forward to spending time in jail over a label.**

The farms are all a part of a system that works and runs together. The big farm companies lease lands and maintain the ditches and dams that bring water over the mountains. They pay to maintain this infrastructure that was built upon the cane and pineapple days. (You know the industries that brought us local folks together?) On those lands that they lease, they sublease it, ready to farm, to the small farmers that grow the bulk of the produce here. These small farmers could never afford to pay to maintain these lands and get rates subsidized to start their farms. That’s where our food is grown. (Not many people actually want to do that unfortunately.)

The big farms use a lot of supplies and equipment that other farms can use. With more people needing farm stuff, the companies that bring it in can offer it at lower prices since there is a greater demand for it. Other farmers can get their fertilizers, potting soils, and other supplies much more affordably as a result. This puts equipment dealers and other farm suppliers in business.

Not only does the big farms and small farms need supplies but they also need many other businesses. That includes construction workers to build sheds and processing places for their produce. Drivers and delivery workers to get their goods out to the market. Mechanics might be needed too for fixing equipment. Even plumbers, pipe layers, and an engineer or architect for designing a new building. Fence and iron workers might be needed for putting up fences and gates. A mason worker would be needed for building that foundation for the sheds and driveways. The farmers also need health care companies to work on providing insurance to their workers. Doctors and dentists are needed to care for their workers to also. Accountants are needed to help keep the books in order also. Produce and seeds need to be shipped places by shippers, whether it be by air or cargo. These are things that farmers need others for, which create more jobs in our communities. No farmer could do this alone.

What legislators like Wooley, Gabbard, Green, Ruderman, and Thielen are attempting to do is tear apart this system that covers more than just the farms itself. They want their Californian utopia of small little farmers growing food. Who’s gonna pay for maintaining the infrastructures in place? The state? No. They need companies that can absorb those costs and be reliable tenants to the state and other landowners. This in turn creates jobs for the displaced ag workers, who relied on the plantations, which includes skilled workers to scientists. If you tear out this component of the system, the entire system would collapse. Do you think that is a good alternative for Hawaii? Hawaii was built on this system and relies on interdependence of all the parts.

So when you sit on the fence and don’t know whether or not to support the Right to Farm bill, you might want to think about it more, because it may spell the end of those nice little farmers’ markets across the islands, as well as impact others who don’t even farm. Who would want to farm anymore when more and more laws are added on your back to make your business even harder? No one.

I’ve been called a shill already by politicians like Mike Gabbard and Russell Ruderman. Mike Gabbard is the state senator who sent me his proof of GMO dangers with the debunked Seralini link and Russell Ruderman is another state senator who owns 4 natural food stores and proudly boasts that the led the charge to ban fracking in Hawaii. Yes, we have some stellar folks in office here. Today, officially, I’ve been called a shill by none other than Gary Hooser for speaking out about biotech and farmers. The shill gambit is just another ad hominen attack at the person when you don’t have facts or evidence to support your claim. Here’s his quote on his blog and guest column on the Star Advertiser:

They hired prominent community leaders, conducted unethical “push polls”, and employ an army of industry bloggers and social media experts that attack the credibility and integrity of their opponents at every step.

Gary Hooser is so dumbfounded and blinded by his broken record statements that he can’t fathom that anyone would speak out for farmers could actually do it for free! Yes, Mr. Hooser and your fellow anti-GMO followers, I have not received a cent let alone any kind of payment to write this blog let alone pay for its existence. None. What is true is that I’m sick and tired of you and your activists doing nasty stuff towards anyone who speaks up for agriculture in Hawaii and acting as if you speak for the local people. No, you are just taking advantage of local people not speaking up, plain and simple. I find it pretty amazing that your title for today’s blog mentions bullying because you seem to have chosen the wrong word.

Let’s see what the definition of what a bullying actually is:

Who decided to enact this kind of legislation in the first place Mr. Hooser? Let’s meet the folks that have asked for this kind of laws to be made. Note some key terms in the definition of bullying: intimidation, harassment, threat, imbalance, coercion, repeated acts, mobbing, targets. **Note parental discretion due to threats of harm and foul language or gestures.**

If you read these kinds of comments, would you actually feel safe trying to testify for your cause? Common sense tells you no way. Does it look like a mob targeting people? Are there forms of intimidation in the comments? Do you actually think that real homeless people would stay there and risk their own safety against people who say and think stuff like this? I’d have to say I don’t think so. Real people know the truth of what happened and why.

He himself doesn’t like to see the disrespect, rather any criticism, on his own page also but it must be fine for his mob to do it towards others.

Hooser’s statement shows the total denial that he’s in and says a lot about the blind eye about what his mob does:

Residents supporting the Bill slept overnight on the hard and wet cement in front of the County building in order to garner a coveted seat inside the Council chambers, while the chemical companies hired the homeless and down-and-out to hold seats for their executives.

Then there is that supposedly “clueless” guy Tyler who claims to no nothing of the issue wearing a Hui O Kauai hat and taking $100 right on camera. The anti-GMO mob taped the whole thing themselves. Then there is the admission by Mr. Hooser himself that Tyler is his son’s friend. Who’s telling the truth?

The biggest discrepancy in his latest blog is this statement:

Bill 2491 does not ban pesticides nor does it ban GMO’s, it simply requires disclosure.

If that really is the case, then why are you a part of this:

Then there is yet another claim in his blog too about the meeting that the County Council was to vote on the bill. Had they outright voted on the bill as intended with the 6 members, according to the Sunshine Law, the meeting would have ended. The had polled for the vote and discovered that there would not be a quorum that set off the motion to get that 7th person in to reach quorum to finally pass the law.

And Mr. Hooser, as well as Mr. Atchitoff, if you are so determined to be aligned with these GMO Free groups, why were you eating it products that your mob members love to hate at a restaurant that isn’t GMO Free?! Did you thank a GMO farmer that day?

Of course people are going to say that Mr. Hooser was being spied upon at his dinner but the plain truth is he walked in after this person was having dinner that night. Get your facts straight. Never mind, there are no straight facts with followers of his regime.

And one last thing Gary and mob members… Are you trying to bully me for my petition to speak up for the farmers that you have disparaged and been disrespectful too? You may have the numbers but that doesn’t equal up to the hard work and knowledge that any farmer has any day. I’m standing with the farmers!

**Note if you’re an anti-GMO activist trying to post on here, I’m tired of your threats and vile comments. You can send them and I’ll repost it as a new blog. All posts found were publicly available on the social media also that were sent in by someone or captured in public forums. All comments are my own and do not reflect anyone else’s.**

Over 127,000 United States citizens were imprisoned during World War II. Their crime? Being of Japanese ancestry.

Despite the lack of any concrete evidence, Japanese Americans were suspected of remaining loyal to their ancestral land. ANTI-JAPANESE PARANOIA increased because of a large Japanese presence on the West Coast. In the event of a Japanese invasion of the American mainland, Japanese Americans were feared as a security risk.

Succumbing to bad advice and popular opinion, President Roosevelt signed an executive order in February 1942 ordering the RELOCATION of all Americans of Japanese ancestry to CONCENTRATION CAMPS in the interior of the United States.

Evacuation orders were posted in JAPANESE-AMERICAN communities giving instructions on how to comply with the executive order. Many families sold their homes, their stores, and most of their assets. They could not be certain their homes and livelihoods would still be there upon their return. Because of the mad rush to sell, properties and inventories were often sold at a fraction of their true value.

When the order was repealed, many found they could not return to their hometowns. Hostility against Japanese Americans remained high across the West Coast into the postwar years as many villages displayed signs demanding that the evacuees never return. As a result, the interns scattered across the country.

Note some key terms in what happened to the Japanese Americans in this excerpt that a politician succumbed to popular opinion and bad advice when enacting this order. It was based on no evidence and paranoia against a made up perception of an enemy. This so called enemy created hostility against it that continued for years and resulted in discrimination and prejudice for years after that.

As I read this, I’ve come to realize that there are many parallels here to what is happening in Hawaii with Bills 113 on the Big Island and Bill 2491 on Kauai, as well as last year’s labeling bill. The same events are happening here in our islands. There is no evidence to base these laws on and a whole lot of paranoia being spread by the organic industry’s tactics to misinform the public. All kinds of propaganda is being spread against this perceived evil technology that is based in fear but no evidence.

Then we have irresponsible politicians like Gary Hooser, Tim Bynum, Brenda Ford, and Margaret Wille, seeking the bad advice from propaganda spreaders like Jeffery Smith, Andrew Kimbrell, Ronnie Cummins, Vandana Shiva, and Bill Freese. These people are not scientists nor have any background to make the claims that they do but are believed by these politicians and their activists.

Despite the fact that this perceived evil could provide that environmentally friendly, sustainable world that they want, it will never be able to be accepted into mainstream until many years down in to the future, when the propaganda dies down and we no other options left. The scientific evidence tells us that this technology is safe yet it is rejected by the popular opinion that has been bombarded in fear and misinformation and nothing else. (Our ancient societies recognized this phenomenon well and coined the phrase, “They condemn what they do not understand.”)

The Japanese people suffered years of discrimination and prejudice because of what was the popular opinion at the time. They carried on and despite the hardships, eventually became powerful figures in the communities. The biggest example of this persevering spirit is Dan Inouye. In agriculture, it is the papaya that is the shining example of this technology. The corn, soy, and other plants are still facing this discrimination but is still toiling on and producing our food and textiles. They are being continually touted as evil but have become necessary tools for the farmers that produce the things we need. The farmers who use these tools have become the perceived enemy of the moment which they should not be. I say respect their wishes to use this technology and the research and science that supports it.

The word pono is always mentioned in these divisive conversations. Do what is right! What is right here to begin with? The pono thing is to use the evidence built over the years and base decisions on that, not on the popular opinion of the moment. Our politicians are succumbing to bad advice and the bandwagon of the moment protests of ignorance. Do we want to repeat the same mistakes in history by outrightly rejecting this tool that so many have minuscule understanding about? Where is the science and technology leading us to? The future is in genetics and genetic engineering but so few here have no clue about it. That does not mean that we automatically disqualify it out of their ignorance.

If only politicians could instantly get a research and science degree and then take a look into a crystal ball of the future. It would change their shortsighted thinking in an instant to know the possibilities. Right now, these popular politicians are blinded with Monsanto glasses like their ignorant followers too. That is not what we need in Hawaii. Slamming the door on technology does not do any of us favors to address our future needs of sustainability.

Do the right thing for once Gary Hooser, Tim Bynum, Brenda Ford, Margaret Wille, Tulsi Gabbard, Mike Gabbard, Jessica Wooley, and Russell Ruderman. When it comes down to setting the standards to make those laws, use the evidence presented. That is your responsibility to the people and farmers and ranchers of Hawaii… Laws should not be based on popular opinion and bad advice of your loudest activist.